Dolce Mabelle: Don Coqui- Puerto Rican Cuisine and Friends

Before I get in to dinner at Don Coqui (delicious!), just wanna share that for lunch yesterday I had a smoothie with my sandwich (please ignore the fact that I've had a turkey & cheese grilled sandwich for the past two weeks). I found a banana that was slowly getting darker and darker on my counter so I decided to make a strawberry-banana smoothie using the Nununatural sweetener that I won a while ago during a blog contest at Live, Laugh, Eat.

Okay I won this a whileeeee ago (I got a cool recipe book, the sweetener above, and baking powder...loved it!). Although I haven't posted about the product until now I've constantly been using it. I don't use sugar in anything I make and sometimes things come out a little bland. However, this product gave my smoothie the kick it needed. It turned out soooo good and perfectly sweet (not overly). I am trying to elongate the life of this item for as long as I can. I'm not sure if I can find this product for sale in New York City. Maybe wholefoods?
Note: I am not being compensated for this comment. I won the product during a blog contest and that was it. My opinion is 100% true and based on my personal and direct experience w/ the product.

So moving on to dinner---last night some of my friends from my previous job took me out to eat. A couple of them came all the way from Long Island to my town to visit. I was very happy and excited to see them. Is true what they say that, as you get older, only your true and real friends stick around. Now, this had to be the 4th bday dinner since my bday on 10/25 and it just made me feel so amazingly good that I have such good friends (bday post is obviously late) that really took out the time to spend time with me and celebrate. I still have to write my bday post. Warning: this blog is not exactly chronological. :)

So anyways, when I arrived only one of my friends was there so we had a drink by the bar. She had a margarita and I had some wine: Chardonnay:

For dinner I really wanted to have a salad but my friends refused to let me order that during my bday dinner (horrible friends! lol) so I opted for something that caught my attention: Grilled chicken with Yuca Mash. I was expecting a small, normal portion and rather I got this (sorry for the dark pic):

It was delicious but needless to say I took more than 1/2 of that home. Took a mental note that this restaurant has enormous servings!

My friend ordered dessert so I had a few teaspoons off of hers:

"Cheese Flan" Two words: Simply Amazing.

And here are my beloved friends...love them all. Sometimes as much as you might hated your job (which was my experience) its good to know that you can make friends for a lifetime and that is worth more than anything else. :)